I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...
Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?
Can someone enlighten me about it ?
You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play
as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.
Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?
Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?
I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because they had no background. In BG3 it looks they're trying to lead custom character to a higher level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else and give you a few different options during the whole game ?
I could be mistaken but I think that the origin characters not only have backgrounds but backgrounds built into the game. If you create a custom character your background can only be built into the game as much as they allow in character creation (like, race/class/background/etc). Origin characters could already know NPC's in the game. Let's take Laezel for example, she might know someone or something in the game where another githyanki, like a custom character, doesn't. Origin characters might also have events that happen to only them, events you would never see without that specific origin character. Like Astarion; we saw a scene with his vampire lord but if Astarion wasn't in the party we would never have that scene and following dialogue/gameplay. Even if they allow custom vampire spawns, it's likely any custom vampire spawn wouldn't trigger that event because they aren't Astarion.
And what's the problem in your exemple if Lae'zel or (the awfull) Astarion aren't Origin characters ?
You can still have this kind of background and interractions if they're in your party but NOT playable characters...
Correct me again if I'm wrong but I don't really think playing Sebille as your main character in DoS2 is TOTALLY different than playing with her in your party... right ?
I mean, are you going to replay BG3 way more times than DoS2 because there will be more "origin" main characters ?
The number of companion is what matters for the replay value but do you really care about the ability to play them as a main character ?
I'd rather like to know Larian is working on custom voices and custom background for custom characters than spend LOTS of money so every companions have their voices in every dialogs related to every quests/dialogs (main or side) in the game.
Origin character is just the fact that you can play them and I can't see why this is absolutely necessary to really improve their story or background...
Players still enjoy BG1/2. Players enjoy P:K, Players enjoy Wasteland, Players enjoy Dragon Age, Players Enjoy PoE, players enjoy ...
I guess Origin characters wouldn't be a part of DoS's success if Larian was able to create interresting custom characters, which is their goal for BG3.
More than that : I think Origin characters is a true limitation for them because they're stuck in their story telling : everyone HAS to start the story at the same place and HAS to have to exact same main problem/quest.
I personally love creating my own characters, but there are some people who actually prefer to play predesigned characters. It seems odd to me but to each their own.
Predesigned characters doesn't need to be origin characters.
I.E there are predesigned characters in BG1/2 and I don't think anyone find the main character's story inconsistent in those games, especially in BG2 where a (too short) side quest is related to your class.